French-Canadian newbie

[xjiefx]

Hey Everybody!
My Name is Jean-Francois and I come from somewhere near Montréal, Québec, Canada. For long I've been interested in beer but never brewed anything myself. I worked a couple of times in beer events in montréal and Chambly. I worked twice for McAusland brewery and a couple of times for Carlsberg-tuborg.

Now, I'm planning on starting brewing with 2 of my friends. We have to wait till the beggining of june to buy everything and start our first batch. Meanwhile, I bought homebrewing for dummies on amazon. I'll receive that pretty soon. I can't wait to taste my firts home beer.

You guys had good first experiences??? Anything drinkable? You compare your first batches to what?

Well, I really enjoy reading you all. And reading you helps me improve my english

Check you later!

J-F!

 

[FlyGuy]

Welcome Jean-Francois! Where near Montreal do you hail from? I lived in Ottawa for a number of years and know the area well.

And yes, I am sure you will find out that brewing for yourself can be easy AND you can make outstanding beer. I am not sure where you buy your equipment and homebrew supplies from, but I highly recommend the kits from Brewhouse (RJ Spagnols) and FestaBrew for beginner homebrews. The Brewhouse kits are really easy to modify, too, if you want to expand your brewing repetoire. And there are good all grain suppliers in Ottawa and Montreal. You should be set!

Best of luck to you and your brew buddies!

 

[dibby33]

Bienvenue au forum. Brassage heureux !

 

[xjiefx]

Thanks for the welcome!!!

Flyguy: I live on the direct south-shore of montréal which is named Longueuil. I like to call it Long beach because it's by the St-Laurent river. I will probably by all my kit at: La cachette du bootlegger. And I'll surely go with one of their fresh extract they make... They are calles Super Batch. Here is the site: super batch What mix do you recommand? I was thinking of the danish pilsner for my first... is it a good choice?

dibby33: Merci beaucoup! Santé à toi mon ami!!!! (cheers to you my friend)

 

[xjiefx]

Also... if I buy this starter kit , will I be OK with it? Do I have to buy anything else? Are there any other items that I should get?

thanks!

 

[Axegod]

Bienvenue

Try this place as well.....I haven't ordered from them yet, but they seem to have a great selection and were very good for answering email inquiries.

http://www.grainsmaltes.com/

The Deluxe starter kit you are considering looks good - and its a reasonable price.

Also, Pilsners (which are lagers) require constant temperatures near freezing for fermenting. I would recommend making ane ale or stout
as your first batch if you do not have the fridge or freezer.

Here is another good website for brewing: http://www.howtobrew.com/sitemap.html

Cheers.

 

[Orpheus]

Salut J-F!

J'ai habite au Montreal pour quatre ans (1991-1995.)

Bienvenue et a votre sante!

 

[Sir Humpsalot]

Also... if I buy this starter kit , will I be OK with it? Do I have to buy anything else? Are there any other items that I should get?

thanks!

It looks alright. How are you planning on boiling your wort? Full boils? Partials?

 

[xjiefx]

Axegod: Thanks for the tips... I'll surely check those sites out!!!

Orpheus: Did you brew when you were in montreal? Where did you buy your stuff?

Damn Squirrels: I'm not sure about your question. I'm really new to this. I'm planning to boil the wort for 5 minutes as the site says. what are full boils... partial boils???

 

[Sir Humpsalot]

Read www.howtobrew.com

It gives a lot of great information. Basically, if you are making 5 gallons of beer, you can do it a few different ways. The easiest and fastest is to just boil the extract with some hops, add it to cool water, and pitch the yeast. One step up in complexity and flavor is to boil the full 5 gallons of wort. Doing this gives you better control over your hops and how you use them. Then, from the full 5 gallon boils, you're only about a hundred bucks away from going all grain, getting rid of extracts, and brewing directly from the malted grain.

For partial boil though (that's what you're doing- only boiling part of the water), I would say the kit is fine.

 

[Cede]

Bonjour Jean-François.

I'm new on this board too, and maybe we'll meet in Montreal.
I'm moving to Thetford Mines this summer, but I'll have to stay for a while in Montreal for my job.

A bientôt.

 

[Rodanrodanadana]

Hi Jean-Francois, there is a mailing list for Montreal brewers at https://secure.neap.net/mailman/listinfo/montrealers
I am only on the Ottawa list, so I am not sure how active it is, but members of the list were winning prizes at brewing contests recently.